Get Ready:
The PCs are in search of a magical cave in the wilds of the Ashford Valley.
Get Set:
The PCs are looking for a magic cave in the wilderness. Perhaps they heard of the cave from a folk-story a few months ago and decided to find out whether it has any truth or maybe they found an old map from adventurers of long past and follow it to the cave.
Go!:
The cave is located in a hill topped with a copse of trees. The cave is below the trees but hidden by vines and undergrowth. Outside the cave is a pair of rune stones. Rune stones are fairly common around the Ashford Valley and often have a magical nature associated with them. Attempts to read the runes on the stones comes up with a few clues to the cave: 1. the cave is called the Cave of the Sky, 2. intruders will encounter severe conditions or difficulties, and 3. the final guardian is unseen.
Looking into the cave, the PCs will see a large cavern made of blue rock with shiny quartz crystals spread throughout (it looks like the night sky) and a passage leading deeper into the hill on the far side.
Upon entering the cave, the crystals go dim and the PCs are pelted with hail! Each character that remains in this room must save versus petrify or suffer 1d4 damage per round. Escape to the far passage way takes a minimum of 2 rounds (A cruel GM may require three ability checks vs. Dexterity to reach the shelter of the tunnel, with the total number of successes subtracted from 4 rounds to determine how fast the PC makes it to safety - 1 round for a complete success and 4 for complete failure, with each round taking more damage!).
Additionally, after the 1st round, lightning strikes around the room, attracted to large metal objects (like armor and weapons). There are 3 lightning strikes per round, each attacking as a 1st level fighter (If the target is wearing metal, the attack is equivalent to a 3rd level fighter) and do 2d6 damage per strike (3d6 for metal-bearing targets). Both the hail and the lightning only occur while entering the cave, not during an exit, unless activated by someone entering the cave.
The tunnel leads deeper into the hill, and to the main spirit shrine. The shrine room is filled with tendrils of mist. As the PCs enter, the mist starts moving towards them, surrounding them, picking at their clothes and faces with cold and wet fingers. The PCs must save v. fear or flee the shrine. If all of them succeed, then the mist disappates and a light shines down from the ceiling, much like sunlight. Lawful characters are healed 2d8 hit points by the light and refreshed. Neutral characters are healed 1d8 hit points by the light, while Chaotic characters are not healed and the light blinds them for 1d6+6 turns (no saving throw).
By making the appropriate offerings (obvious to Lawful and Neutral PCs), the PCs gain a treasure that would be useful to the PCs for their further adventures. What treasure the shrine contains is up to the GM. If no offering is made and the treasure is removed, the unseen guardian spirit geases the PCs (cast at 12th level and if the geas fails to affect even one PC, the hail and lightning effects occur on the way out), compeling them to find an appropriate item and return it to the magic cave (the GM should make the quest sufficiently difficult). Once the treasure is removed with the offering or replaced by geased PCs, they can never find the magic cave again.
Notable NPCs:
None.
Posts
I love environmental challenges, so often as DMs we get used to throwing monster after monster at our group this sort of thing really is a nice change now and then.
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